Reference no: EM131550391

Assignment 1: Theory of Consumer Choice and Frontiers of Microeconomics

You have been asked to assist your organization's marketing department to better understand how consumers make economic decisions.

Develop a 12- to 15-slide Microsoft PowerPoint presentation to be presented to the Marketing Department that addresses the following.

Explain the following in your presentation:

- The impact the theory of consumer choice has on:
- Demand curves
- Higher wages
- Higher interest rates
- The role asymmetric information has in many economic transactions
- The Condorcet Paradox and Arrow's Impossibility Theorem in the political economy
- People not being rational in behavior economics

Cite a minimum of 3 peer-reviewed sources not including your textbook.

Format consistent with APA guidelines.

Assignment 2: Why Are Some Occupations Paid More than Others?

The purpose of this assignment is so students may look at the microeconomic data and other sources for better understanding of trends and determinants of the labor market.

We will look at the microeconomic data and other sources for better understanding of trends and determinants of the labor market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website provides public with an easy access to different statistical tools and different types of data presentation.

Assignment Steps

Select one of the following surveys as a team, from the BLS Current Employment Statistics survey (National):

- Goods-producing Employment - CES0600000001
- Construction Employment - CES2000000001
- Manufacturing Employment - CES3000000001
- Trade, Transportation, and Utilities Employment - CES4000000001
- Retail Trade Employment - CES4200000001
- Education and Health Services Employment - CES6500000001

Retrieve and save a Microsoft Excel file and the graphs to your desktop for analysis. You will have to check the "include graph" box along the top of the page to see the graph, and you will need to copy and paste the graph separately into your Microsoft Excel document.

Tutorial help on Excel and PowerPoint functions can be found on the Microsoft office website. There are also additional tutorials via the web that offer support for office products.

Consider the following two articles, located in the Week 4 Electronic Reserve Readings, discussing actor salaries and hedge fund executives' average salaries:

- "Robert Downey Junior is Hollywood's Highest-Paid Actor"
- "In Tough Year, Hedge Fund Leaders Still Paid Well: Average Salary of $467M Was Half 2013, Report Says"

Online Classes: Prepare and present a 5- to 8-slide Microsoft PowerPoint presentation-analysis.

Campus Classes: Prepare a 5- to 8-slide Microsoft PowerPoint presentation based on your analysis to share in class.

Include the following content in the presentation:

- What are trends in the labor market for the chosen labor group that you can identify for the last 10 years? Please provide the retrieved statistics.

- What factors affected the demand and supply for this labor group during the last 10 years? Research and report data available from Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and other peer reviewed sources.

- Why do actors and actresses earn so much compared to the chosen labor group?

- Why do hedge fund executives earn so much compared to the chosen labor group?

- In addition to wages, what other factors influence an individual to choose one job over another?

- What jobs do you think have the best mix of salary and other characteristics that individuals care about?

Cite a minimum of three peer-reviewed sources, not including the textbook and required economic data.

Format consistent with APA guidelines.

Assignment 3: The Economics of Labor Markets

Select an organization your team is familiar with or an organization where a team member works.

Develop a 15- to 20-slide Microsoft PowerPoint presentation to be presented to the CEO's executive committee that addresses how your chosen organization determines what quantity of labor to demand and what events could shift the demand and supply of that labor.

Explain the following in your presentation:

- How your organization's production function is related to its marginal product of labor
- How your organization's marginal product of labor is related to the value of its marginal product
- How your organization's marginal product is related to its demand for labor
- Examples of events that could shift the demand or supply of labor and why they do so
- Reasons a worker's wages might be above the level that balances supply and demand
- An analysis of the impact that government policies addressing income inequity and poverty could have on labor demand or supply

Cite a minimum of 3 peer-reviewed sources not including your textbook.

Format consistent with APA guidelines.

Assignment 4: Current Market Conditions Competitive Analysis

You have been given the responsibility of working with your organization's CEO to do a competitive market analysis of the potential success of one of their existing products.

Select your organization and a product produced by that organization from IndustryWeek.

Write a 2,100-word analysis of the current market conditions facing your product, making sure that you address the following topics:

- Define the type of market in which your selected product will compete, along with an analysis of competitors and customers.
- Analyze any comparative advantages and international trade opportunities.
- Explain the factors that will affect demand, supply, and prices of that product.
- Examine factors that will affect Total Revenue, including but not limited to:
- Price elasticity of demand
- Factors that influence productivity
- Various measures of costs, including opportunity costs
- Externalities and government public policy and their effect on marginal revenue and marginal cost
- Recommend how your organization can maximize their profit-making potential and increase their presence within the market served by the product.

Use a minimum of 3 peer-reviewed sources from the University Library.

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

Assignment 5: Markets and the Economics of the Public Sector

You have been assigned to a team that has the responsibility of preparing a paper consisting of 1,750 words for the governor's next economic conference. Your paper should address the following:

- Explain why equilibrium of supply and demand is desirable.
- Explain the following concepts using the concept of consumer and producer surplus:
- Efficiency of markets
- Costs of taxation
- Benefits of international trade
- Discuss how externalities may prevent market equilibrium and the various governments policies used to remedy the inefficiencies in markets caused by externalities.
- Analyze the difference between the efficiency of a tax system and the equity of a tax system as it refers to the costs imposed on taxpayers using the benefits principles.

Cite a minimum of 3 peer-reviewed sources, not including your textbook.

Format consistent with APA guidelines.

Assignment 6: Ten Principles of Economics and How Markets Work

As part of a marketing research committee for your organization, you have been assigned the task of preparing a 700-word research paper about current microeconomic thought and theory.

Use Principles of Microeconomics, Chs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, as the source for all your information.

Identify the fundamental lessons the Ten Principles of Economics teach about:

- How people make decisions
- How people interact
- How the economy as a whole works

Explain the following to help the committee members understand how markets work:

- How society manages its scarce resources and benefits from economic interdependence
- Why the demand curve slopes downward and the supply curve slopes upward
- Where is the point of equilibrium and what does it determine?
- The impact of price controls, taxes, and elasticity on changes in supply, demand and equilibrium prices

Format consistent with APA guidelines.